![Images clockwise starting from the left: 1: Passerby near Damaged 101 Tower Skyscraper in Kiev [Алесь Усцінаў]. 2: Palestinians school children at a refugee camp in Beirut, in Lebanon on 6 March 2012 [Mohammed Asad/Apaimages]. 3: Children play atop a bullet-riddled building in Gaza [United Nations Photo]. 4: People Sleeping in an Air Raid Shelter in Kharkiv metro [David Peinado]. 5: Aftermath of an Earthquake in Bhaktapur, Nepal [Sanej Prasad Suwal]](https://u.osu.edu/armedconflicts/files/2024/09/option-2.png)
Grantees
Ra’phael Davis is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. Ra’phael’s project “Partnering for Peace: How Communities Build Peace in Farmer-Herder Conflicts” explores how the structure of civil society collaboration helps resolve conflicts between traditional farmers and nomadic herders in Nigeria. Other research interests include peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, civil society, and African politics.
Jack Fernandes is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science. Jack’s project is titled “Deluge of Distrust: Cyclone Management in Malawi.” The project examines how disaster management shapes the relationship between the public and the government in Malawi. Through interviews conducted at the national, district and village levels Jack’s project captures attitudes about the relationship between disaster management and politics, the challenges facing a variety of actors involved in DRM, and identifies data sources on rainfall, international aid, and media coverage. Jack’s research interests include global environmental politics with a specific focus on the political challenges to disaster management and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mehr Mumtaz is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology. Mehr’s project “Experiences of Legal Uncertainty, Immigration Bureaucracy, and (Im)mobility among Displaced Afghans” examines the intersecting racial and gendered logics of US migration bureaucracy and its role in shaping women’smigratory journeys (or a lack thereof) from Afghanistan in the period since the US evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021 and the takeover of the Taliban government. This project asks, how has the US immigration regime and bureaucracy shaped Afghan women’s experiences with (im)mobility? Mehr’s research interests include international migration, migration law& policy; forced displacement, intersectionality and labor.
Alberto Vega Rivera is an MFA candidate on the Digital Animation and Interactive Media track in the Department of Design. Albert’s project “Ultrallanos: Stay and Resist” is a creative project inspired by Colombian farmers, brought to life through Augmented Reality using the Google Geospatial API. Alberto’s main research interest is interactive animation.
Lejla Vesković is a PhD student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures. Her project is titled “Russian Mind in the Montenegrin World.” This research aims to identify the ideological preferences of the Russian oppositional diaspora residing in Montenegro. During her fieldwork in Montenegro, she focused on observing the level of integration of the Russian-speaking community into the host country’s society and on the ideological framework of the parallel institutions established by the émigré community. The results of the research may outline the alternative collective identities and the governance system that the Russian oppositional diaspora could potentially reinstate in their country of origin once the political context permits. Lejla’s research interest includes a wide range of intersections between art and politics.
Katherine Weiss is currently a 5th year PhD Candidate in the Department of History. She specializes in Modern European history with minor fields in military history and women, gender and sexuality studies. Her grant is titled “Mobility as language and choice: raising children in occupied Northern France, 1914-1918.” Katerina writes, “Constrained by an oppressive German occupation, mothers in occupied Northern France faced many decisions about whether to evacuate or remain in their homes.” Her project analyzes their decisions while also demonstrating that mothers did not always have choices, and immobility was often imposed upon them. Katherine is broadly interested in social histories of World War I, analyzing the intersections of state power and individual experiences.
Sam Wrigglesworth is a graduate student in the Department of Art. Their project “The Refaat Alareer Library” is a DIY pop-up library centering texts on Palestinian history and liberation. Sam’s research interests include feminism, photography, and community-engaged art practices.